Notebooks are known for their convenience and portability. To be convenient and portable, notebooks need to be thin and light; hence, the internal space of the notebooks is limited. With the increased heat given out by the integrated circuits (“IC”) of the Central Processing Unit (“CPU”) and the decrease in the notebooks' volume, heat density rapidly rises and this heat cannot be dissipated in the narrow and small space provided. If the heat cannot be effectively dissipated, it will affect the performance and reliability of the product, and it can even shorten its lifespan. Accordingly, making electronic products more compact affects the components and the system. The functions of the IC chips have increased, but the area of the chips has not increased much. It has become a challenge for engineers to deal with the increasing number of transistors in the limited space and the resultant increasing heat because, unlike desktop personal computers, notebooks do not have many parts with open designs.
Generally speaking, notebook manufacturers use heat sinks, heat pipes and fans (collectively referred to as a “thermal module”) to lower the heat generated during operation. After thermal modules were first incorporated into notebooks in 1997, they have become indispensable and essential components. They can come in different designs and materials to match different notebook models. The design concept of thermal modules is to bond metals of high heat transfer coefficient, such as copper or aluminum, to the surface of the CPU and to transfer the heat generated by the CPU through heat pipes to heat sinks. The heat is then circulated by convection using fans to maintain the operating CPU at a certain working temperature. Normally the thermal modules of the notebooks must be designed to maintain satisfactory convection and conduction in a narrow, limited space. The design must also take into consideration the system environment, conditions, operating temperature permitted by the system, etc. during usage to ensure that the thermal module of the CPU meets these requirements.
Whether or not a notebook will crash will greatly depend on the operating temperature of the notebook. Manufacturers of processing units such as Intel and AMD normally require the internal temperature of the notebook's CPU not to exceed 100° C. when the room temperature is 35° C. to maintain the normal operation of the CPUs. When the temperature exceeds 100° C., there are risks of the processing unit burning out.
The existing traditional heat dissipation method of a notebook system is mainly to conduct the extreme heat generated by the CPU or VGA components through a sealed surface to the heat sink first or to high heat-conducting metal pieces. The heat is then conducted through heat pipes to heat dissipating devices, such as fans, heat sinks, etc. However, the traditional method of heat dissipation through many components has resulted in relative increases in thermal resistance and cost. Furthermore, because traditional heat sinks are mostly made of aluminum alloy, heat conductivity is only average, and with the increasing heat-generating power of modern notebook components, there are blind spots to overcome.
It is foreseeable that in the future the number of the transistors will increase with the coherency of the IC chips, and functions will be more completed. Therefore, heat dissipation in notebooks during operation will be a big obstacle to be overcome.
The present invention provides a new design for a heat sink module suitable for light and thin electronic equipment that reasonably and effectively ameliorates the aforementioned deficiencies.